


The One Where They Move In Together

by JanuaryCafe



Series: It's Classified [4]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Danny handles things smoothly (probably), Jealousy, M/M, but for weird reasons - it's Steve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-06-27 06:02:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19784734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JanuaryCafe/pseuds/JanuaryCafe
Summary: It had occurred to Danny that while Steve’s offer to move in together came from a place of love, it also came from a place of clinically diagnosable control issues.





	The One Where They Move In Together

It had occurred to Danny that while Steve’s offer to move in together came from a place of love, it also came from a place of clinically diagnosable control issues. If Danny lived with him, Steve was able to watch him all the time, make sure he was eating right and sleeping well, be sure he folded his shirts, and generally know all Danny’s comings and goings. It was probably something that should be a red flag, but Danny was pretty sure he read it correctly as a slightly dysfunctional expression of Steve’s affection.

Steve’s need to know everything about Danny all the time was to ease his mind that he was safe and happy. Also, Steve was a busybody who threw a stoic fit when someone had a secret he didn’t know. At least, that’s how it was when it came to Danny. Steve respected everyone else’s privacy about ninety percent of the time…maybe eighty-five percent. It should have probably bothered Danny that that didn’t bother him at all.

It had been pointed out to Danny before (by Mattie) that Danny gravitated toward bossy people. Thinking back on it, a disturbing number of the people he got along best with and cared about most were slightly more invasive and opinionated than Danny had realized before. His ex-wife Rachel (who had slept with his brother, but who had also made Gracie, and who was now his friend), Nick, and Danny’s late partner Grace came to mind immediately.

However, while Danny was fine with Steve poking and prodding at his life and shuffling through the metaphorical files on him, he knew Jameson would shoot out Steve _and_ Danny’s knees before she let Steve near any of her department’s secrets. And Danny kept a lot of secrets for Jameson.

“Maybe I shouldn’t tell him.” Danny adjusted the phone by his ear as he peered covertly into the living room.

“You mean you want to wait longer?” Nick asked from the other end of the line.

“I mean, maybe I should never tell him.”

“Why? You were pretty excited that you finally had a deadline with Jameson.”

“The man is in the living room right now sorting through my boxes of shit.”

“Okay. So? He’s helping you unpack.”

“Don’t even get me started on that. ‘Everything in its place’ is kind of a McGarrett family motto. He has a plan mapped out for where all my stuff can go. An actual plan. On paper.” Danny looked down at said plan laid out on the kitchen counter. There were diagrams and footnotes.

“And your version of unpacking is to drop things where you stand.”

“Or leave them in boxes,” Danny agreed.

“Is that your hang up? The neurotic organization?”

“No. I don’t care.” Let Steve put things where he wanted if it made him happy. Danny would just yell at him later if he couldn’t find things. Steve seemed to like it when Danny got riled up, so it wouldn’t be an issue.

“Then are you going to get to the point? I have a date in half an hour and I’m trying to shave while I let you vent at me.”

“You’re a bad friend, Nick.”

“You love me.”

“God help me, I don’t hate you.”

“You’ll give in and admit it one day. But seriously, what’s wrong?”

Danny sighed. He took another peek at Steve. “As we speak, he is going through my boxes and, I don’t know, mentally cataloging things.”

“You did say he had a plan.”

“Yes, but this is different. This isn’t ‘your shoes will fit in the closet,’ this is, ‘how long have you had this tie? Who got it for you? Is it your favorite?’ And he spent an hour asking me questions about my family. It’s getting hard to remember where I had to embellish a little for work.”

“So, he wants to know about you,” Nick summarized, sounding distracted.

“Yes, literally _everything_ about me.”

“Does that freak you out?”

“What? No. Steve’s always been kind of like that.” Danny waved a hand to brush the idea away.

“Fucking hell. Just tell me the reason you called so I can calm you down, or I’ll hang up on you and start shaving safely with two hands involved.”

“He actually wants to know _everything_ ,” Danny said helplessly, “He really does. It interests him. He gets twitchy when he doesn’t know. Not in a creepy way, just in a—”

“First off, that is kind of creepy, just for the record. But second, I know you, and you tend to like people who are invasive and tell you what to do. Gives you more opportunity to bitch about things. You’re happiest when you’re bitching. Makes sense that you picked this guy.”

“Why do people keep saying that?” he groused, “You’re the second person who said that to me about Steve.”

“Only the second?”

Danny ignored him. “But how is Steve going to react when I tell him that I’ve been keeping things from him, and that there are things I can’t tell him and won’t ever tell him?”

“Probably not well,” Nick said.

“That’s not calming me down,” Danny pointed out.

“I don’t have that long to lie convincingly to you. I know you don’t like to listen to me when I say things, but I did tell you when I answered the phone that this wasn’t a great time. If you want better platitudes, call me again when I’m not busy.”

“If you were more on the ball with this consoling me business, we’d be done by now.”

“I’m hanging up.”

The line went dead. Danny swore and tossed his phone onto the table. He massaged his temples and stared down at the Steve’s plan. It would be fine. Steve would understand. If it was work-related, he’d let things go. He never stalked Chin at work or in his personal life. And it wasn’t that Danny didn’t want Steve to know everything, because he did. It was that he could never tell him everything. It was out of his hands, and so it was also out of Steve’s hands…which Danny didn’t think Steve would respond well to.

He looked back down at the section of the unpacking blueprints that detailed how they would sort through Danny’s ties so they could fit properly on their shared tie hanger. Danny scowled and grabbed a purple pen out of his pocket to make a few adjustments, scrawling violet scribbles next to Steve’s neatly written notes that were printed in respectable black ink. He was getting his own tie hanger, dammit. Feeling better about drawing his arbitrary line in the sand, Danny left the rest of the plans alone.

When he got back to the living room, he found that Steve had emptied all Danny’s boxes and sorted his things into neat piles. He put his hands loosely on his hips and watched in amusement while Steve carefully broke down the empty boxes. “Need any help, babe?”

“We’ll need to carry some things upstairs in a minute.” He grabbed another box to pull apart. “Who was on the phone?”

“Friend from work. Nick. He’s being an ass and won’t help me out. I’ve done so much for that shithead that you’d think he could tamp down on the attitude long enough to answer a few questions straight.” Danny shook his head.

“Anything I can help with?”

“Nah.” Danny hesitated. It was as good a time as any. “Actually, something came up with Nick. He’s starting his own private security firm. He asked me to work with him. It’ll probably be some weird hours sometimes, but I was thinking that…” Danny trailed off before he could remind Steve that he too had strange hours with his Five-Oh task force, and that if they both had strange hours it would probably just bring them closer as a couple. Probably. But it sounded like over-explaining, which sounded suspicious, which was counter to Danny’s goal of appearing completely not-suspicious.

Steve had gone still, his face frighteningly neutral. “What did you tell him?”

“Uh…yes. I said yes. I mean, it’s better pay and I can…Steve? Babe? You okay?”

Steve’s eyes had gone stormy and his mouth was set in a firm line. “Yeah. I’m fine. Really great.” He shoved his box away and stood up. He turned on his heel and went up the stairs without another word.

Danny gaped at his retreating back. For Steve, that might as well have been him stomping out of the room and throwing things as he went. “Hey!” Danny called out, “Where the hell are you going?” He flung his hands out from his sides. When he got no answer, Danny swore under his breath and trailed after him.

He found Steve in the bedroom yanking clothes out of the closet, his expression still bafflingly dark. Danny stared for a moment, feeling wrong-footed.

“You going somewhere?” Danny asked, halfway joking and halfway unreasonably alarmed that Steve was moving out already. Which made no sense because Danny had just moved in, and it was actually Steve’s house by law. Yet he looked angry, his shoulders stiff and his movements jerky. He also wasn’t neatly folding the clothes, which was even more alarming. Steve was a freak about folding things so that they remained wrinkle free, like the guy had never heard of an iron before.

“Just making some room for your things,” Steve said with brittle cheerfulness.

“But what about the plan?” Danny waved in the direction of the map in the kitchen downstairs. “You were really excited about the plan. This isn’t part of it.” Danny would know; he’d had the whole thing explained to him over a candle-lit dinner one night, which Steve had probably thought was a romantic date topic.

“Whatever. Doesn’t matter. I mean, I know I said that was what I wanted, but I changed my mind. People do that, don’t they? Even without talking to anyone else about it.” Steve shoved at the remaining clothes hanging in the closet, and the hangers screeched over the metal bar as they were relocated.

“I guess.” Danny felt even more lost. “I feel like I’m missing something here. Maybe I should leave and come back so we can try this again? You just let me know when you want to start making sense, babe.”

Steve turned around then, and Danny was surprised to see hurt underneath the anger.

“Hey, what’s going on?” he asked softly, stepping forward to lay a hand on Steve’s abdomen. His other hand went to his shoulder and stroked gently.

“What’s going on is that you turned me down flat when I asked you to join Five-Oh. Now this _Nick_ out of the blue wants to start his own team and you just…just… _sign on_.”

Everything clicked into place for Danny then. He could have slapped himself for not thinking this through all the way. “I’m sorry, I didn’t even think of it like that.” To be fair, no sane person would, he was pretty sure…mostly sure. Shit. He’d fucked up.

“Why him and not me? What does he have that I don’t?”

“Okay, you need to not ask it like that,” Danny said, “It’s weird.” He stepped back and pinched the bridge of his nose, holding up a hand so Steve would give him a second to think. “All right. Look, I’m not sure I’m ready for you to be my boss. We butt heads enough as it is. I’m not sure I could do that at work and at home.”

“I wouldn’t be your boss,” Steve said, “I’d be your partner. At work and at home.”

“What about Chin?”

“What about him?”

“Isn’t he your partner?”

Steve shrugged. “He knows where things stand between us. He understands that if I could have you, things would have to change with him.”

“See, you’re doing it again. Maybe don’t phrase things that way.”

Crossing his arms, Steve looked Danny up and down. “Is he offering to pay you more? I’ll outbid him.”

“That’s not it—”

“Then what, better hours?”

“No, I already told you, the hours will be weird—”

“Did he offer to let you pick where you eat lunch? I’d let you pick if you actually wanted to.”

Danny paused in his reassurances. “Hey, whoa, I would _love_ to pick where we eat, but someone always has to have the last word on it. I say Italian, you say, ‘nah, let’s go get shrimp.’ I say pizza, you say—”

“Oh, right, like I haven’t tried to let you pick a place—”

“Hey, we’re getting off topic.” Danny held up both hands to bring the detour to a halt. “And no, I’m not taking the job just because he lets me pick where we eat.”

“But he does let you pick?” Steve pushed, stubborn.

Danny threw his hands in the air. “I don’t know! I’ve never eaten lunch with the guy.” Not at a restaurant, anyway. Usually it was whatever wildlife they tracked down while trapped in a desert or tundra somewhere. Nick was big, but he was quick enough to catch fish with his bare hands. At the thought of that, Danny’s uneasy feeling about Nick and Steve getting along grew stronger. It was a problem for another time, he decided. At the moment he had his hands full with six feet of sulky SEAL.

Looking slightly reassured that Danny had never had an official noon meal with Nick, Steve loosened his stance a little. “Then what is it?”

For a moment, Danny thought about joking ‘he lets me drive my own damn car,’ but thought that might not go over well. “It was the right offer at the right time. That’s all. This is just what I need right now.”

Steve didn’t look happy about it, but the tension in his shoulders eased just a little. “Fine. I guess I can’t forbid you to do this and take you for my own team.” His tone went up just a little at the end, like it might have been a question.

“I’m glad you realize that, because that thing you just implied would be crazy and would be a little closer to coercion than is befitting an officer of the law,” Danny said firmly, and then more gently, “But I do want your input. To a point.”

With a slow exhale, Steve dropped his crossed arms. “What’s the job again?”

“Private security. Someone wants to travel safe, they call us.”

“Won’t you… be gone a lot more?” Steve seemed unhappy with the information.

“Not any more than I am right now, probably. Me and Ma agreed I should spend some more time here,” Danny covered quickly.

“You do visit them a lot,” Steve said with a nod.

“Right. More than enough. Time to cut the cord.” Danny winced. He was nervous.

“You’re sure this is what you want? I thought you loved being a cop.”

“I do,” Danny said slowly, “But I think it’s time for a bit of a change. I’m not quite up to being on a government task force just yet, but this might be a nice middle ground.”

Steve perked up a little at the words ‘just yet,’ and Danny mentally kicked himself. He hadn’t meant to give Steve hope that eventually they could work together. It wasn’t in the cards for a long, long time. If ever.

“Look, a task force just…isn’t for me.” Not with the extensive background checks they would run. And he wasn’t ready to leave the CIA. Despite its complications, he loved his job.

Steve frowned. “But a private security firm is?”

“I told you—”

“I’m not trying to read into this, I’m really not, but it sounds to me like you don’t trust me to have your back at work, and you do trust this other guy.”

Danny bristled. “Well, get your hearing checked, babe, because that’s not even close to what I’ve been saying to you for the fucking _months_ you’ve been hinting for me to work with you.”

“Oh? What have you been saying, then?” Steve crowded into his space, looming a little, arms crossed. “Just come out and say it.”

“I would if you would pull you goddamn head out of your ass long enough to hear me!” Danny snapped, not giving any ground.

“I should have just done it. I almost did. I should have gone down to your precinct and taken you with me that first day,” Steve growled, “If you’d just give working with me a chance—”

“Oh, like _hell_ you should have,” Danny snapped, “I would have kicked your ass all the way back to the fucking Army!”

“For Christ’s sake, it’s the—you know what? No. Forget it.” Steve jerked back and turned away.

“Why is it so important that I work with you?” Danny demanded, “You have plenty of talented people on your team already.”

“Because I don’t like the idea that you’re out there without me to watch your back!” He rounded back on Danny.

“I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself; don’t bust a vein trying to be my knight in shining armor!”

“You came back from a case last week with _bruises around your neck_ , Danny! What the hell am I supposed to do about that?”

Danny’s hands whipped through the air, trying to illustrate the points Steve didn’t seem to be grasping. “Nothing! It’s my job! I’m a cop! I track down dirt bags and throw them in jail with the proper amount of evidence! We can’t all have full immunity and means!”

“Yes, you can!”

“No, I can’t!”

“Why not?!”

“Because I love you too much to—” Danny was cut off when Steve swooped down and kiss him hard on the mouth. His hand came up to grip the back of Danny’s skull, and Steve walked him backward until Danny was pressed flush between the wall and his moderately-insane lover.

When they finally pulled back, Danny had no idea what argument he had been ready to lob at Steve. Something about loving him too much to murder him at work for just five minutes of peace. “What the fuck?” he asked instead, voice a little rough.

Steve watched him, gaze intense, body still firmly pressed against Danny. His thumbs were calloused and warm where they stoked the skin across the edge of his jaw, his hands still wrapped around the back of Danny’s head.

“You said you love me.”

An unwelcome flush spread slow and bright up Danny’s neck, and he took a moment to curse his parents for giving him skin fair enough that it showed any and all increased blood flow. Steve watched the flush with interested eyes and leaned in to press the tip of his tongue to the hollow of Danny’s throat.

“I…well, it’s true,” Danny said, breath hitched when Steve dragged his teeth up to the soft skin under Danny’s jaw.

“I know. Just wasn’t sure you’d say it.”

“Of course I would. Why wouldn’t I?”

Steve pulled back a bit, eyes serious. “Rachel hurt you. A lot. I figured it might take you a long time to be that vulnerable with someone else.” He pressed a kiss to Danny’s cheekbone just beneath his eye. “I didn’t mind. I would have waited.”

With effort, Danny ignored the spike in his heart rate and met Steve’s gaze. “She did. But…” But Steve was special. What he felt for Steve went so far beyond what he had felt for anyone else, with the exception of Gracie and his brother. He had never loved someone the way he loved Steve, though. Not that he would be sharing that particular confession any time soon. Steve had an inflated sense of importance concerning his role in Danny’s life as it was. Just last week he had switched Danny’s toothpaste without his consent because ‘the old kind wears down tooth enamel, Danno.’ _Bastard_ , Danny thought fondly.

“Say it again.” Steve pressed Danny closer to the wall, the pressure doing nice things to Danny’s body.

He hummed contentedly. “I love you.”

Almost before he had finished speaking, Steve was on him again, mouth firm and demanding against Danny’s, tongue warm and seeking entrance to his mouth. Danny let him in. Danny would always let him in.

Steve kissed him until Danny’s head spun with it, until he was ready to start breaking shit if it got things moving along a little faster. When he tried to pull away and suggest they take things somewhere more comfortable, Steve just got a firmer grip on Danny’s hips and licked the back of his teeth. After a few more dizzying minutes, Danny had had enough.

He used half an odd yet effective move that Nick had taught him to break a hold, and half a second’s gentle-but-firm pressure between Steve’s legs with his thigh (the element of distraction) to get out from the grip. He shoved at Steve’s chest, pushing him back toward the bed. Steve landed on it with a muffled sound of surprise, and Danny followed him down. He got Steve’s wrists in a firm grip next to his head, gazing down at the dark stubble dusting his jaw, the little scar on his chin, the blown pupils watching every move Danny made.

“You know,” Danny said conversationally, settling firmly over Steve’s hips, hands still clenched around Steve’s wrists, “Usually when someone says something like that to you, there’s something you say back.”

“Thank you,” Steve said. The little shit.

Danny leaned down and sucked a mark into Steve’s collarbone in retaliation. “Anything else, McGarrett?”

He shifted his wrists in Danny’s grasp to lace their fingers tightly together. “God, I love you.”

Danny was sure he’d never heard words in such a nice order before. He pressed down against Steve, who strained for Danny’s mouth again. Danny pulled back and smirked a little.

Steve bit at the juncture of Danny’s neck instead. “So, is this angry sex, makeup sex, or ‘I love you’ sex?”

“Babe,” Danny said, Steve’s still trained on his mouth, “It’s all the same thing for us.”

Danny really couldn’t imagine it any other way.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, this has been sitting on my computer for, what, four years now? Figured I'd just put it out there. I actually do still have more of this in various stages of writing. My main challenge is that while I adore these two idiots, I sadly haven't really watched the show for four years (coincidence?). I'm still slowly working on finishing up what I have at least, since it really is fun to work on!
> 
> If anyone stumbles on this after so long, thanks for hanging out! For others who gave up: I can't blame you. ;)


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